Spain • • • 🌿 Progressive

Personas mayores revisan documentos de pensiones ante un edificio institucional español de piedra
Erick Prometeo Media

Saiz urges rigor on pensions and defends the reserve

Elma Saiz asked Alberto Núñez Feijóo for more rigor on Social Security, contrasted the 0.25% rise and the 5,000 million euros left in the Reserve Fund under…

--- The context --- The pension reserve fund has returned to the center of the clash between the Government and the Popular Party, in a debate over pensioners' purchasing power and the Social Security accounts ahead of the general election scheduled for November 29. The row follows Popular Party warnings about benefits and last week's controversy over its congressional spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, who warned in indirect terms that the system was going to break down. --- The facts --- The minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, on Tuesday asked the Popular Party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, for a little more rigor when speaking about Social Security, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers. Saiz contrasted that, under Popular Party governments, pensions rose by 0.25% and the Reserve Fund was left practically empty, reduced to barely 5,000 million euros in that period. Against that record, the minister pointed to the forecast that the Reserve Fund will reach around 20,000 million euros by the close of 2026 as evidence of how the accounts have evolved. She also questioned, in indirect terms, Feijóo's authority to warn about holes in pensioners' pockets and in the Social Security accounts. --- The positions --- The Government defends raising pensions in line with the consumer price index, linked to protecting pensioners' income. Feijóo presented on Monday twelve pledges if he becomes head of government after November 29, among them raising pensions every year and ensuring young people can inherit the public system, alongside sovereignty and territorial integrity, democratic quality, a leaner state with an audit, at least one million homes and orderly immigration. --- What remains unknown --- The source does not detail the Fund's path between the low of 5,000 million euros and the forecast of 20,000 million euros for 2026, nor how much of the recovery comes from contributions, transfers or employment. Nor are each side's full figures on future pension spending known. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the forecast of closing 2026 with about 20,000 million euros in the Reserve Fund be met? How will each proposal reconcile annual uprating with long-term sustainability? What concrete measures will guarantee that young people can inherit the public system? --- EPM analysis --- The debate confirms the electoral and social weight of pensions. The Government turns the reserve's recovery into a management argument, while the Popular Party places pensions among its priorities without its spokesperson's controversy shifting the focus toward alarmism. Both share annual uprating as a commitment. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, protecting pensioners' purchasing power requires that uprating in line with consumer prices be sustained with verifiable accounts and not only with cross-accusations, because the difference between a fund reduced to 5,000 million euros and a forecast of 20,000 million euros will only be a solid argument if it is explained transparently how that recovery occurred, what cost the system assumes each year and what real margin remains to fulfill the promises made to today's pensioners and to younger generations who expect to rely on the same public system.
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